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Sharper Shape's New Sharper A6 BVLOS Drone

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— 2 min read
Sharper A6 close-up
Sharper Shape has announced its  new Sharper A6 drone and Sharperscope 5.0 payload. The Sharper A6 drone is the world’s first drone optimized for BVLOS asset inspections. Notably, the Sharper A6 uses four redundant cellular networks to make it virtually impossible for the drone to lose communication with ground control operators.Sharper Shape leverages the LTE commercial multi-billion-dollar networks, while other vendors use point-to-point (P2P), which cannot communicate beyond line of sight, or satellite connection, which suffers from high costs and invariable latency which increases the response time and impedes a pilot’s ability to make quick adjustments during the flight.

The A6 drone can collect a comprehensive variety of useful data (including information from its HD cameras, infrared sensors, corona detector, LiDAR sensor, etc.), and is to this day the only platform capable of doing so in a single flight. The sensors have been carefully selected and integrated into the Sharperscope 5.0, a system that Sharper Shape has engineered specifically for electric company BVLOS inspections and which syncs directly to the Sharper Shape cloud.

“With Sharper Shape’s A6 drone, operators can conduct long-distance flights with peace of mind that inspections will be safe, secure and accurate,” said Sharper Shape CEO Tero Heinonen. “We’re excited to team up with SkySkopes to fulfill the mission of the EEI-Sharper Shape partnership: make BVLOS flights a reality for U.S. electric companies in the very near future.”

In conjunction with submitting the waiver application, SkySkopes and Sharper Shape kicked off a string of test flights including:

  • The first flight using the new Sharper A6 drone via a line-of-sight demonstration to inspect the Xcel Energy Bison Substation
  • A final flight with a fleet of drones to celebrate the day’s events

“These test flights have contributed to a monumental day for the U.S. drone industry,” said SkySkopes President and CEO Matt Dunlevy. “We look forward to continuing to pioneer new developments for drone flights in the U.S. alongside Sharper Shape.”

Sharper Shape, EEI and SkySkopes are optimistic to test BVLOS flights in the U.S. by the end of the year.

Source: Press Release

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